Sustainability Conversations ... Keep calm!

How much is the planet heating up? 
1.7 degrees - is actually a significant amount.

How much trouble are we in?
For future generations, big trouble

Is there anything I can do?

Fly less, drive less, waste less.

What’s the optimistic scenario?

Several things have to break our way.

Will reducing meat in my diet help the climate?

Yes, beef especially.

What’s the worst-case scenario? 

There are many. 
 

​Will a tech breakthrough help us?

Even Bill Gates says don’t count on it, unless we commit the cash.

How much will the seas rise?

The real question is not how high, but how fast. 

Are the predictions reliable?

They’re not perfect, but they’re grounded in solid science.

Why do people question climate change?

Hint: ideology.

Is crazy weather tied to climate change?

In some cases, yes.

Will anyone benefit from global warming?

In certain ways, yes.

Is there any reason for hope?

If you share this with 50 friends, maybe.

Longer discussions here

“Stacking stones is such a universal impulse, an activity that has gone on around the world as long as humans have been here,” said the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, climbing from a sport utility vehicle to see for the first time the project he had been working on for more than five years, “Seven Magic Mountains,” his largest public art installation and one of the most ambitious pieces of his career. More here

April breaks global temperature record, marking seven months of new highs

Latest monthly figures add to string of recent temperature records and all but assure 2016 will be hottest year on record. Last month was the hottest April on record globally – and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records.The latest figures smashed the previous record for April by the largest margin ever recorded. More here.

The World's Largest Coal Supplier Is Building a Giant Solar Plant

It is an important milestone in China’s drive to decrease pollution. Serious PR problems—not to mention an immense risk to public health—have driven China to commit to installing 10,000MW of solar power in the next five years, and deals like this are the cornerstone of actually making that happen. Read here.

 Lucie Pagé starts2. 

Ntsako Mkhabela creates a more sustainable South Africa one word at a time; one child at a time. Join us on the iStart2 Show on Thursday at 17h30.

iStart2. Do you?

I am an African ... Thabo Mbeki

On Sunday 8 May 2016 The Thabo Mbeki Foundation hosted an event to commemorate the former president’s “I am an African” speech. It also marked the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution. We join the dialogue on the iStart2 Show this week.

Seipati Kau, Executive Head: Private Office of Executive Mayor 

thanking President Mbeki on behalf of the City of Tshwane

Thabo Mbeki focussed on some pertinent issues:

His “I am an African” speech:
 “I would still say whatever our problems today, tomorrow will be better.”

The Constitution:
"The Constitution whose adoption we celebrate constitutes an unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender of historical origins… It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, promote them, strive for their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met with repression. It creates a law-governed society which shall be inimical to arbitrary rule.”

On Societal Engagement:
“A lot of our people are not familiar with what this Constitution says. The consequence is that we sit in government and do something that is wrong and even unconstitutional. Mmusi [Maimane] will say it is incorrect and so will the judges. But where is the rest of society?”

“Let’s have this national dialogue. The people must speak.”

Thabo Mbeki made a call to South Africans to get to know the Constitution better and also had some advice for the current leadership. We listen to excerpts from his speech on the iStart2 Show and discuss the importance of the Constitution in ensuring the sustainability of our Country. Ntsako Mkhabela joins us in studio.

To listen to the show, just click play below:



Thought of the Day:

Join our conversation and let's make a difference in building a sustainable South Africa for all the people of our beautiful country.

Sustainability Conversations ... The Future of our Planet

 - Al Gore and Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse on the future of our planet — and everything else. Video here.

- Agroecology can feed Africa - not agribusiness

Naledi Village in Rustlers Valley 

- An example of Agroecology

Corporate interests have skewed the entire development agenda for agriculture in Africa, writes Ian Fitzpatrick. Instead of investing in sustainable, small scale farming along agroecological principles that raise production and support rural communities, governments - including the UK's - are backing destructive industrial farming and land grabs. Read more here

A little Arts project in Amsterdam

Using sand to create an impression in Amsterdam - the inventor of sustainable printing magic JIM BOWES has brought the message of peace and freedom to the streets of Amsterdam. Like all environmentalists, he also helped to clean it up. Video here.

Global water shortages to deliver 'severe hit' to economies, World Bank warns. By 2050, growing demand for cities and for agriculture would put water in short supply in regions where it is now plentiful – and worsen shortages across a vast swath of Africa and Asia, spurring conflict and migration, the bank said.
Read more here.

The Energy Revolution Is Actually Happening Right Now. By the end of 2016, there will be twice as much solar as there was in 2014. Read article here.

iStart2 Believe Again ... Ntsiki Mazwai

She's powerful. She's hot. Often politically "incorrect". She has a stage presence that rocks the audience. She is also very kind and full of jokes when not writing open letters to view her strong opinions as a woman's activist, poet and musician.

On Thursday we join our Sustainability Hero of the Week, President Thabo Mbeki. 

It's been twenty years since he made his iconic 'I am an African' speech. The highly-regarded address was delivered on the day South Africa formally adopted the Constitution. To mark the event, President Mbeki and his foundation hosted a public meeting at Freedom Park in Tshwane on Sunday 8 May 2016.

We join the conversation and chat about the relevance of the Constitution 20 years after. Tune in to the iStart2 Show on Thursday at 17h30 to listen to the show. 

Keitu Gwangwa & Pierre du Toit host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869. Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za.

Desperation to Destiny ... Dr Stanley Arumugam

"The book, Desperation to Destiny is about a journey that we all undertake as human beings. It is about that space in time when we really come to a difficult time in our lives. The key message is that it is a good place. Pay attention to that place that you are in. It is actually a holy place. Don't escape it, embrace it," says Stanley Arumugam on the iStart2 Show. "You need to make a decision on where you want to go."

We chatted to Stanley about his role as Senior Head - Governance, Leadership & Accountability at ActionAid International and his views on sustainability issues affecting our people. "Things like climate change has a significant impact on people and especially the poor." Stan is of the opinion that we have a middle class that is quite disinterested in what is happening and his hope lies in asking people to rethink the question of what it means to be a good a neighbour. He further believes that the ancient wisdom of servant leadership is still very applicable. 

"I believe in South Africa and the magic and diversity we have in our people. iStart2 hope for the country" - Stanley Arumugam 

To get in touch with Stanley email him at stanley.arumugam@gmail.com and to listen to the interview, just click play:



Thought of the Day:

In the words of David Whyte:

Despair is a necessary and seasonal state of repair, a temporary healing absence, an internal physiological and psychological winter when our previous forms of participation in the world take a rest; it is a loss of horizon, it is the place we go when we do not want to be found in the same way anymore. We give up hope when certain particular wishes are no longer able to come true and despair is the time in which we both endure and heal, even when we have not yet found the new form of hope.

We take the first steps out of despair by taking on its full weight and coming fully to ground in our wish not to be here. We let our bodies and we let our world breathe again. In that place, strangely, despair cannot do anything but change into something else, into some other season, as it was meant to do, from the beginning. Despair is a difficult, beautiful necessity, a binding understanding between human beings caught in a fierce and difficult world where half of our experience is mediated by loss, but it is a season, a wave form passing through the body, not a prison surrounding us. A season left to itself will always move, however slowly, under its own patience, power and volition.

‘DESPAIR’ From CONSOLATIONS:
The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press 2015
Available http://davidwhyte.stores.yahoo.net/newbook.html

Sustainability Conversations ... do you Start2?

Snippets of sustainability news around the world, challenges we face in South Africa, interesting projects and a dash of Art ...

Start  Close in ...

Take that step you don't want to take ... iStart2 ...
 

Is the signing of the historic Paris climate deal on Earth Day 22 April 2016 by 175 nations just symbolic?

(Photo: Mary Altaffer, AP)

Echoes from the Valley ...

PJ Powers on the iStart2 Show

Scribbles on the Cave Wall ...

View from the Edge

On Thursday we chat to our Sustainability Hero of the Week, Dr Stanley Arumugam.  We chat about his new book, Desperation to Destiny, his views on the biggest sustainability challenges we face as a society and what they are doing  in their company ActionAid International to create a more sustainable world.  Tune in to the iStart2 Show on Thursday at 17h30 to listen to the show. 

Dr Stanley Arumugam 

is the Senior Head - Governance, Leadership & Accountability 

at ActionAid International

Keitu Gwangwa & Pierre du Toit host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869. Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za.

"I'm sweating like hell.
So help me, if I hear someone tell me it's the humidity one more time..."
"Actually it is not the humidity, it's humanity."

...........................................

Red Song ... Keorapetse Kgositsile

"Poetry has been an integral part of the struggle. Nineteen-ninety-four was not the end of the struggle. Human existence on this planet is a struggle and might always be. And perhaps without that life might have been ridiculously boring and not worth living," says Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile on the iStart2 Show. 

Born in 1938, Keorapetse ‘Willie’ Kgositsile left South Africa in 1961 and lived in exile in the United States and returned to South Africa in 1990. The recipient of many poetry awards; amongst others, inaugurated as the South African Poet Laureate and the National Order of Ikhamanga Silver (OIS) for excellent achievements in the field of literature.

Keorapetse Kgositsile asks some pertinent questions: "Do we have the material basis for transformation? Is there a capitalist society anywhere on this planet with a human face? Why don't we have arts and culture as part of the curriculum of the education system?" He believes that the responsibility for creating a sustainable world lies in accepting that this responsibility belongs to all of us. "South African literature does not need me as much as I need it. We must do what we do with humility and respect. I am just a contributor to an ongoing process"

Thank you to our icon of South African poetry for sharing his story, for reciting his poem Red Song in his own voice and for sharing his wisdom and advice on creating a sustainable world through the arts.

To listen to the full interview and Vusi Mahlasela's rendition of Red Song, just click play below:




Thought of the Day:

Video of the week:

Vusi Mahlasela's Red Song from the poem by Keorapetse Kgositsile:

Hope you've had an inspiring Freedom Day this week! We wish you a restful Worker's Day and a safe long weekend ahead! Have fun!

- The iStart2 Team

Making Magic On the Mountain - 23 April 2016

This is a fable which tells the story of an imaginary tribe living on Magic Mountain in a land of milk and honey. The tribe faced several challenges in our quest to acquire the magical diamonds at the top of the mountain.

It all happened one Saturday night when the moon was full. The tribe decided to gather their community and started talking and singing about the issues affecting their beautiful land ... 

It was very unfortunate that some skerminkels have infiltrated their beautiful land and were taking big bites out of the food source. 

The elders in the community shared tales of a long forgotten time when tribe members lived close to nature, when food was in abundance, when people cared about each other and lived in peace with one another ... 

It was a joyous evening full of fun and laughter. Ancient sounds of a long forgotten time connected our souls as we listened to the stories and music of the past and the future. 

The tribe realized that when we focus on creating a sustainable world, when we let it sing from every village and every town, from every city and every country, that we will then be able to join hands and leave sustainable footprints for our children. 

Is this what the crack in the universe is all about? 

Thank you to everyone who played their part in making this evening such a memorable experience.

We love you all and it was wonderful working together.
Let's get to the diamonds at the top of the mountain.

iStart2Sing from the mountain side ...